


The Tender Solemn Dawn-Time

by PhoenixFalls



Series: Just As They Wished It To Be [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M, MIT Era, POV Character of Color, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 22:52:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/918955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixFalls/pseuds/PhoenixFalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After their first night as roommates, James discovers that morning-Tony isn't quite what he would have expected.</p><p>Written for <a href="http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/11264.html?thread=27669504#t27669504>this%20prompt</a>%20on%20AvengerKink%20asking%20for%20">this prompt</a> on AvengerKink asking for "some random, sappy, fluffy... <i>goo</i> between Tony and Rhodey."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tender Solemn Dawn-Time

James had seen newly-awoken Tony before — the morning after they met when Tony was sleeping off his hangover in David’s bed, and a few other mornings when James felt uneasy sending him back to his room by himself. Tony was rather understandably nauseous at those times, but through his misery he always seemed quintessentially himself — brilliant, sarcastic, and unexpectedly vulnerable.

When Tony asked if they could room together next year, James had agreed without much thought. He was going into his junior year and had been looking forward to swinging a single so that he could really focus on his coursework, but they had been spending so much time together anyway he figured it probably wouldn’t be much different. Besides, even though Tony thought his own homework was beneath him, he did spend long hours in the robotics lab, and on the nights he found someone to hook up with he normally went to their room instead of his own.

But less than twenty-four hours into their new arrangement, James was already discovering that a semester and a half spent mostly in each other’s pockets didn’t make him as much of an expert on Tony as he had thought.

Tony’s flight had landed in the late afternoon, just too late for him to register for classes, so he had come straight to their dorm and set to work unpacking. James, who had gotten in the previous day, already had much of his stuff unpacked and so spent the evening mostly heckling Tony’s idea of organization. He had then gone to bed at a reasonable hour, because he had an ROTC breakfast the next morning.

Tony must have stayed up late, because when James got back from his breakfast and a trip to the student union for some supplies Tony was still asleep. James was tempted to pull him out of bed or turn the stereo up loud, but L.A. was three hours earlier than Boston so James decided he would be kind. He closed the door so other new arrivals wouldn’t pop in to say hi, and set to work organizing his desk supplies.

A little less than half an hour after that Tony started to stir. First he rolled onto his back, then his arms stretched out above the blankets and James heard a jaw-cracking yawn, and then Tony’s feet kicked jerkily until the the blanket fell off him to the floor. But when James looked over Tony’s eyes were still screwed shut, and after he worked himself free of the blankets he stilled again.

James continued watching for a couple minutes, but when Tony didn’t show any more signs of life he turned back to his desk.

Several minutes after that, James was pulled out of his contemplation of the most pleasing arrangement of calculator—pen cup—stapler on his desktop by an absolutely ridiculous sound, one he’d have to categorize as a snorfle. He couldn’t let that pass.

“Did somebody sneak a pig in our room while I was out?”

Tony snorfled again, and James grinned. “No, seriously, you sound like you belong in a barn, I think that’s something you should get checked out.”

Tony scrunched up his face, then scrubbed at it with his hand, then finally opened his eyes. “Wha. . .?”

James couldn’t resist. He stood up and walked over to Tony’s side of the room, stopping right next to the bed so he could loom over Tony’s still befuddled face. He stretched his grin maniacally wide and used his loudest, most cheerful voice to say, “Good morning, sleepyhead!”

He expected Tony to startle and curse, maybe throw his pillow. Instead, he just blinked up at James a couple times, and then once his eyes focused on the face less than a foot above his own Tony smiled. No hint of a smirk, no wry twist, an absolutely sweet smile like James was the best thing Tony could see upon waking.

“Hi.” It was barely more than a whisper of sound, and James melted. He smiled back helplessly, and only just stopped himself from raising a hand to smooth out Tony’s bed head. When he spoke again his voice was soft and unbearably fond.

“It’s almost noon, Tones, time to get started on the day.”

Again, James would have thought Tony would object to that, probably with some muttered insults to James’s parentage — last year he had refused to take any class before 12:30, and hadn’t attended half of his 12:30 classes either — but Tony just said a long, drawn-out, “‘Kay,” the consonant soft. And then he held out his hand for James to pull him upright.

James took it and tugged Tony up, stepping back to give him space. But Tony came with him, stumbling into James’s chest. His eyes had slipped closed again, but he was still smiling. “Morning. . .”

James tilted his chin down, unable to resist tucking Tony’s head beneath his for a moment. “Hey, if you’re still wiped you can go back to sleep. . . you’ve still got a couple days to get registered, you don’t have to do it today.”

Tony shook his head slowly back and forth, mussing his hair even further on James’s shirt. “‘M awake.”

James pushed Tony back towards the bed “Sure you are. But why don’t you just lie down for a bit longer anyway, until your legs’ll hold you up by themselves, yeah?”

Tony’s sigh was near enough to a purr to make James chuckle again. “‘Kay. . .”

When the backs of his thighs hit the bed Tony turned and climbed back in, taking his hand back from James. Again James had to stop himself from touching Tony, letting him pull his blanket back up to his waist by himself. Just as James was turning back to his organizing, Tony said one more thing, so quiet James almost missed it.

“Missed you this summer.”

James’s breath caught. Once he was sure his voice would be steady, he responded. “I missed you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> The title is taken from Frances Hodgson Burnett's _The Secret Garden._

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [each pond with its blazing lillies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1265566) by [Tieleen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tieleen/pseuds/Tieleen)




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